Configuring Remote Storage

By default, staXscale Dashboard stores backups on the server. However, this presents a risk. If the server's hard disk fails, you can lose both your website data and your backups. To avoid this, we recommend storing backups in remote storage. This topic explains how to configure remote storage for backups in staXscale Dashboard.

You can configure the following types of remote storage:

• Amazon S3 Backup storage
• S3-compatible storages:
  • DigitalOcean Spaces
  • Various S3-compatible storages (Minio, OpenStack, and others)
• Google Drive Backup storage
• Microsoft OneDrive Backup storage

You can configure more than one remote storage, but you can only have one S3-compatible storage configured at a time. For example, you can configure both Amazon S3 Backup and Google Drive Backup, but not Amazon S3 Backup and DigitalOcean Spaces.

When creating backups, you can only use one remote storage at a time. If you want to store backups in more than one remote storage, create a backup once for every remote storage you want to use.

Amazon S3 Backup Storage

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage, you need an IAM user account. We call this account restricted because it has a limited number of permissions necessary for the Amazon S3 Backup extension to operate.

The extension can automatically create a restricted IAM user account, or you can do it manually.

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage automatically:

1. Create an AWS account.

2. Log in to your AWS account, go to My Account > Security Credentials and then copy the access key ID and secret of the AWS account root user.

3. Log in to staXscale Dashboard and go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.

4. Keep the "I will use the root account credentials (will not be stored)" option.

5. Paste the ID and secret copied during step 2 into the "IAM User Access Key ID" and "IAM User Access Key Secret" fields respectively.

6. Provide a bucket where your backups will be stored. You can use an existing bucket in your AWS account. You can also have the extension automatically generate one for you (if you do, we do not recommend changing the bucket's name).

7. To store backups in a specific folder inside the bucket, type the folder's name into the "Path" field. To store backups in the bucket's root, type "/" into the "Path" field.

8. Click OK.

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage manually:

1. Create an AWS account.

2. Create an IAM user account. Make sure to grant the s3:CreateBucket, s3:ListBucket, s3:GetObject, s3:PutObject, s3:DeleteObject, s3:ListMultipartUploadParts, s3:AbortMultipartUpload, and s3:ListAllMyBuckets permissions to the account.

3. Create an IAM user access key and write down its ID and secret because you will need them later.

4. Log in to staXscale Dashboard and go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.

5. Select the "I have created a restricted IAM user account" option.

6. Paste the IAM User Access Key ID and the IAM User Access Key Secret, which you have copied during step 3, into the corresponding fields.

7. Provide a bucket where your backups will be stored. You can use an existing bucket in your AWS account. You can also have the extension automatically generate one for you (if you do, we do not recommend changing the bucket's name).

8. To store backups in a specific folder inside the bucket, type the folder's name into the "Path" field. To store backups in the bucket's root, type "/" into the "Path" field.

9. Click OK.

The Amazon S3 Backup storage is configured. Now you can select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

Google Drive Backup Storage

The way you configure Google Drive Backup storage differs depending on the Google drive type you will use:

• Your personal drive, used to store files and folders you own and manage by yourself. Google calls this drive type "My Drive". To get this drive, you need to have a free Google account for personal use.

• A shared drive, used to store files and folders for collaborative work teams and organizations to own and manage. To get this drive, a team or organization needs to purchase a Google Workspace account and set it up.

See more differences between My Drive and shared drives.

To configure the Google Drive Backup storage:

1. Choose which drive type to use:

   • If you want to use a personal drive but do not have one, create a free Google account.

   Note

   staXscale Dashboard Backup Manager can use only files and folders it has created. It cannot detect backups uploaded to the personal drive manually.

   • If you want to use a shared drive, contact the Google Workspace administrator of your organization. They will create a user account for you and give you its credentials.

   Note

   To use a shared drive, make sure your Google Workspace administrator has marked the staXscale Dashboard Backup Corporate application as trusted.

2. Log in to staXscale Dashboard and go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Google Drive Backup.

3. Choose your Google drive type (your personal or shared drive) and click OK.

4. Sign in to the Google account whose drive you will use to store backups.

5. Click Allow to allow staXscale Dashboard Backup (for a personal drive) or staXscale Dashboard Backup Corporate (for a shared drive) to view and manage the files in your Google Drive.

6. Click the link to send the Google Drive authorization data to staXscale Dashboard.

7. Keep the "Use the storage" and "Validate backups via checksum" checkboxes selected. Validating backups via checksum checks if staXscale Dashboard has uploaded a backup to the drive completely and without damage.

8. Depending on your drive type, you can configure the following optional settings:

   • (Personal drive) By default, staXscale Dashboard creates the "My staXscale Dashboard" folder in your Google Drive and stores backups there. To store backups in another location, type the desired path in the "Path" textbox.

   • (Shared drive) If your organization has multiple shared drives, select the one to store your backups in the "Drive" dropdown list.

9. Click OK.

The Google Drive Backup storage is configured. Now you can select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

To store backups in the Google Drive storage associated with a different Google account, go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Google Drive Backup and click the "Log out" link.

This will disconnect the currently connected Google Drive Backup storage. You can then connect a different one following the steps above. Disconnecting the Google Drive Backup storage does not remove the staXscale Dashboard backups stored in it. If you reconnect it at a later date, you will see the stored backups in the Backup Manager and will be able to restore them.

DigitalOcean Spaces Storage

To configure DigitalOcean Spaces Storage:

1. Create a DigitalOcean account.

2. Create a space.

3. Create a directory for storing backups inside the space. Note the path to this directory and the space URL. You will use them later to configure DigitalOcean Spaces storage.

4. Create an access key and secret. Note them because you will use them later to configure DigitalOcean Spaces storage. Keep in mind that the secret is only displayed once, when it is created. There is no way to retrieve it later.

5. Log in to staXscale Dashboard and go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > DigitalOcean Spaces Backup.

6. Under "Service provider", select "DigitalOcean Spaces".

7. Paste the space URL, the path to the directory where the backups will be stored, the access key, and the secret into the corresponding fields, and then click OK.

The DigitalOcean storage is configured. You can now select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

S3-compatible storage

A number of services offering remote storage use APIs compatible with Amazon S3. We call them S3-compatible. Of those, staXscale Dashboard explicitly supports DigitalOcean, Minio, and OpenStack.

You can try configuring any other S3-compatible storage in staXscale Dashboard, but there is no guarantee that it will work as expected. You can use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to check an S3-compatible storage for compatibility with staXscale Dashboard. If you can upload or download a file from the storage via the AWS CLI, you can probably use the storage with staXscale Dashboard.

To configure an S3-compatible storage:

1. Go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.

2. Under "Service provider", select "Custom (Minio, OpenStack, etc)".

3. Fill in all the fields. Pay particular attention to the "Bucket" and "Path" fields. A bucket is a place that you create to store data in an S3-compatible storage. You need to note the bucket name and paste it in the "Bucket" field. In the "Path" field, you need to paste a path to the directory inside the bucket where you want to store backups.

4. Click OK.

The S3-compatible storage is configured. You can now select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

Microsoft OneDrive Backup Storage

To configure the Microsoft OneDrive Backup storage:

1. Go to Websites & Domains > the subscription > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings